Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Simpsons-ese enters Scientific Parlance

In the episode "Lisa the Iconoclast", the following exchange happens.

Jebediah: [on film] A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.
Edna: Embiggens? I never heard that word before I moved to Springfield
Ms. Hoover: I don't know why. It's a perfectly cromulent word.
This little exchange makes fun of the ease with which small communities invent their own lingo. Well, in a sign of the cultural power of the Simpsons, "embiggens" has appeared in a recent Physics paper and the author appears to be happy it is drawing some attention.

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